Sporting Kansas City defender Nico Hasler has been selected to the Liechtenstein Men’s National Team for the resumption of UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying during FIFA’s international window in June.
Hasler and Liechtenstein will continue their Group J qualifying campaign on June 8, visiting Armenia for a 9 a.m. CT matchup at Vazgen Sargsyan Republican Stadium in Yerevan. Liechtenstein will then host Finland on June 11 at Rheinpark Stadion in Vaduz with kickoff set for 1:45 p.m. CT.
Hasler, 28, will join Liechtenstein in Europe following Sporting’s MLS regular season match at the Houston Dynamo on Saturday. He has started four of five MLS appearances since joining Sporting in early April and recorded his first assist for the club in Sunday's 3-2 victory over Seattle Sounders FC at Children's Mercy Park.
Group J of Euro qualifying is one of 10 groups that will determine which teams participate in UEFA Euro 2020, which is scheduled to take place in 12 cities across 12 different European countries during the summer of 2020. Liechtenstein are one of six nations in a group that also includes four-time World Cup champion Italy, Greece, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Finland and Armenia. Teams will square off in a home-and-away, double-round-robin format through November, with the top two finishers in the group advancing to the tournament finals.
Hasler started in Liechtenstein’s first two Euro qualifiers in March, which resulted in defeats to Greece and Italy. The microstate has yet to reach the finals of a UEFA Euro tournament and did not become a participating FIFA affiliate until 1976.
As one of the country’s most decorated players this decade, Hasler has scored three goals in 59 caps for the Liechtenstein Men’s National Team since 2010 and was named Liechtensteiner Footballer of the Year in 2015, 2017 and 2018. He has been an integral member of Liechtenstein’s national team since debuting for the senior side in 2010. Since signing for Sporting in early April, the defender has started three of four MLS appearances.
Hasler represented Liechtenstein at the U-19 through U-21 levels—competing in qualifiers for the 2010 UEFA European U-19 Championship and the 2011 UEFA European U-20 Championship—while also cementing a spot with the senior team by age 20. He appeared seven times each in qualifying for the UEFA Euro 2012 and 2016 tournaments and totaled 17 starts in qualifiers for the 2014 and 2018 FIFA World Cups.
Born and raised in Vaduz, Hasler opened his Liechtenstein scoring account in a 2014 World Cup qualifier against Bosnia and Herzegovina in October 2013. He bagged his second goal in a friendly versus Finland in 2017 before adding a third last November in a UEFA Nations League draw with Armenia.
Hasler’s father is the late Rainer Hasler, who in 2003 received Golden Player honors from the Liechtenstein Football Association as the country’s greatest player of the previous 50 years.
